Last Thursday I had the privilege of being invited to the Asia Pacific Student Services Association’s (APSSA) 2010 Conference held here in Brisbane. The focus of the event was student engagement, fostering ideas and providing support on both a micro and macro scale. On a side note, Big Lift gave a brief presentation while I was there and they are doing some really inspriational things in the community. I thoroughly recommend visiting their website!
I was asked to host a conversation with a group of people I had just met on a topic of my choice (as long as it broadly connected back into the main themes of the conference). It was the perfect opportunity to ask a question that has played on my mind for some time.
How can we encourage creativity?
In the arts, we talk about “Creativity” so often that it loses meaning. The importance of creativity has been well documented (even if sometimes under appreciated), but how do we access it? There are incredibly creative people out there doing wonderfully creative things – but how do we replicate that? How do we encourage others to be creative? Some people appear to be naturally creative, some people are perhaps less predisposed to creativity.
This question was posed to a group of around 25 university students from all different walks of life. I wasn’t so much looking for an answer as I was simply looking into what their thoughts on the matter were. In no particular order, below are some of the points raised.
- Creativity requires safety. In order for ideas to prosper, people need to to be in an environment where they feel comfortable and where they feel they can express themselves freely without being ridiculed. Pressure is also another factor that feeds into the ‘ecology of creativity’. This TED talk offers a fascinating insight into how the creative mind reacts to stress.
In short, creativity needs to be nurtured and as one person so eloquently stated during the conversation “People need to be open about [strong]accepting[/strong] creativity. Creativity requires respect.” - Why does creativity require safety? Because Creativity is a risk. By definition creativity is original and meaningful ideas or concepts and with anything untested there is the chance of failure. Like a trapeez artist who is attempting a new trick, they require a safety net; ideas do, too!
- Creativity can be learnt. Although there was the usual discussion of nature vs nurture, there was common consent that creativity can be learnt, though, like so many things in life, it must be practiced.
- Another factor that feeds into this is the fact that people are often told ‘no’, that ideas are to be suppressed and creative pursuits are merely distractions.
- Often there is a large distinction made between those who are “left brained” and those who are “right brained” ie; Creative vs Analytical. However the creative mind requires a keen analytical sense. After all creativity is, more often than not, spawned either as a response to a problem or fulfils a need. Without being able to observe and analyse the world around us, creativity would have no catalyst.
- Tying back into the first point of “The ecology of creativity”, it was noted that to aid creativity one needs to find someone’s passion. Perhaps we cant always expect people to explore their full creative potential unless it’s in an area which appeals to them. Personally I would agree with this only up until a certain point. I agree that people are more likely to open up in areas that they are passionate about, though as an educator it seems that view quickly allows the scapegoat of “they’re not interested, so why try?”
So that’s a very brief summary from what was a fascinating conversation. What do you think? Do you agree, disagree or think we’ve left something out? Leave a comment below!
